Building a Bridge into 2015

30 Dec Building a Bridge into 2015

With Christmas 2014 behind us, our attention now turns fully to the coming year. Two weeks ago I asked for your financial support as United Families International looks to the challenges and opportunities of 2015. Some of our most loyal supporters responded, and for that we are so thankful. But our budget needs for 2015 are significant and we honestly are in greater need for help from our friends and family.

That is why I am reaching out again, asking each of you to help ensure right now that we have the resources required to take the challenges facing the family in 2015 head on:

Rebuilding a culture of marriage. This begins with a focus on “Why marriage matters;” how each of us model a stable and successful marriage, and how we shape culture and impact public policy regarding marriage. UFI is at the forefront of this through our weekly alerts, websites, information packed Issues Guides, professional infographs, and speaking presentations at local and international levels on marriage, divorce, cohabitation, the harms of unmarried sex, poverty and development.

We will also continue testifying and producing written statements that go before legislatures and various UN bodies, as well as speaking at major conferences and to community groups about the power of strong and functional marriages.

Shoring up Religious Freedom. Around the world we continue to see the reality that the cause of the family is intertwined with religious freedom – and religious freedom is under attack like never before in our modern age. We will continue to educate others and promote policy that respects the importance of religious freedom and rights of conscious/personal belief.

There is a significant difference between the freedom to worship and the freedom of religion, and our goal is to continue to provide citizens and policy makers the empirical evidence of the importance of religion to society. Specifically, UFI will continue to be a leader in the effort to prevent dangerous non-discrimination ordinances on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity from becoming law in cities, states, and at the national level.

3. Impacting the conclusion of the process of defining the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda (SDGs). UFI will continue to engage in the discussions and negotiations surrounding the SDGs. We will continue to push for the inclusion of family-supportive and family-friendly language in the SDGs and be in attendance at all the major negotiations. And like last year at the UN, we will host side event/parallel events promoting family and marriage.

4. Continuing UFI’s highly-regarded program of training young adults to participate in pro-family/pro-life advocacy. UFI has developed a very strong track record of mentoring our youth through developing and implementing family advocacy programs for college-age students. These include internships to train in the various aspects of advocacy at the 1) local level 2) state legislative level and 3) international policy/UN arena. Each of these provides speaking and presenting opportunities for our interns to actively advocate the importance of the family and family structure with hard evidence to back their claims.

United Families International’s expertise is world renowned – but this only happens because of the consistent support from our friends. Without your assistance our voices will not be heard. UFI personnel are recognized all across the globe and throughout the UN as some of the leading experts on public policy and UN issues. Our team of experts are sought out by citizens, public policy makers, and foreign delegations for assistance.